The PRC's State Council Information Office held a press conference on December 9, with senior officials from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to discuss Xinjiang’s anti-terrorism re-education camps. Xinhua reported Urumqi Party Secretary Xu Hairong as describing the region’s anti-terrorism efforts as successful. He said “The education and training programs in Xinjiang have yielded positive results.” Xinjiang Chairman Shohrat Zakir pointed out that “There have been no violent terrorist attacks in Xinjiang for three consecutive years” and, according to Reuters, said that things have gotten so under control that “At present the trainees who have participated...have all graduated.” He said “With the help of the government, stable employment has been achieved and their quality of life has been improved.” The Financial Times separately reported that all those facilities the government built to house the “trainees” will be redeployed to “…provide language, law and vocational skills training for village cadres, rural party members, farmers and unemployed high school graduates” and that “Attendance of these programmes would be voluntary and trainees can come and go freely.”
|
